Religion Roundup from the Eyewitness News Newsroom

OBAMA-CONSCIENCE CLAUSE Obama pledges to retain medical conscience exemptions

WASHINGTON
President Barack Obama is pledging his support for conscience protections for health-care workers that will be as strong as those they enjoyed during most of George W. Bush's presidency.

Obama reversed a policy that Bush put in place shortly before leaving office. It required institutions that get federal money to certify compliance with laws protecting the rights of health-care workers who object to procedures like abortion. Opponents feared it could also be used to refuse birth control, vaccines and transfusions.

But Obama assured reporters from religious news organizations Thursday that when his administration completes its review, "there will be a robust conscience clause in place" for health-care workers.

He added that "it certainly will not be weaker than what existed before the changes were made."

OBAMA-DEVOTIONALS Obama says he gets devotionals on his BlackBerry

WASHINGTON
President Barack Obama says he gets a devotional every morning on his BlackBerry.

Obama told reporters from religious news organizations that White House faith director Joshua DuBois sends a morning devotional every day to his e-mail device.

The president added that he may start inviting pastors to pray with him in the White House.

Obama said he's taking his time picking a church because the congregation he chooses will face heightened security and political scrutiny as well. He said last year's controversy over his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, left his family a bit shaken.

At Camp David, Obama said he enjoys the sermons of Chaplain Carey Cash, who ministered to troops during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

US DIPLOMACY-MUSLIMS American Muslim named envoy to Islamic world

WASHINGTON
The State Department's new Special Representative to Muslim Communities says Islam is as diverse globally as it is in the United States, where Muslims come from many ethnic backgrounds.

Farah Pandith, an American Muslim who was born in India, told the diplomatic press that she intends to listen to the concerns of Muslims in various parts of the world in hopes of improving relations.

She says global Islam is too diverse for there to be a "magic program to engage with Muslims" everywhere. But through outreach from U.S. embassies, Pandith says she hopes to learn what the world's Muslims "are saying and thinking and dreaming and believing," so that new dialogues can be established.

TRAIN SUICIDE Sheriff: Pastor and wife hit by train committed suicide

WICHITA FALLS, Texas
North Texas authorities say a Baptist pastor and his wife who were struck and killed by a train committed suicide together.

Clay County Sheriff Kenny Lemons says witnesses on the train reported seeing the couple standing and embracing on the tracks in the path of the oncoming train Tuesday night.

The train engineer blew his horn and applied the brakes, but the couple would not get out of the way.

Lemons identifies them as Eldon Earl Johnson, the 69-year-old pastor of Ringgold Baptist Church, and his wife Linda Kay Johnson, who was 61. They lived in Henrietta, Texas.

Authorities did not give a motive for the double suicide.

The church was damaged in wildfires that nearly destroyed the town of Ringgold in January 2006.

MENNONITES-GAYS Gay Mennonites demand acceptance from church leaders

COLUMBUS, Ohio
In a quiet act of defiance, gay and lesbian Mennonites dressed in pink have protested their exclusion from membership outside the church's convention in Columbus, Ohio.

About 100 ministers and church members prayed, sang hymns and described feeling ostracized growing up in the Mennonite church, which does not recognize openly gay people as official members.

The "pink Menno" protest brought the deeply divisive issue to the forefront of the Mennonite Church USA conference, a national gathering of about 8,000 delegates.

The Rev. Cindy Lapp, pastor of Hyattsville Mennonite Church in Maryland, said her congregation has lost its voting rights within the church for welcoming gays and lesbians.

MISSION GROUP UNINVITED Texas church choir 'uninvited' by Baptist university

WILLIAMSBURG, Ky.
A Texas church that's been expelled from the Southern Baptist Convention for affirming gays can no longer send its youth choir to a Kentucky Baptist mission program.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports that the Broadway Baptist Church Chapel Choir was told that it's been "uninvited" from the University of the Cumberlands' Mountain Outreach.

The Southern Baptist Convention voted during its annual meeting last week to sever ties with Broadway Baptist because it said the Fort Worth church endorses or approves of homosexual behavior.

Instead of going to Kentucky, the choir of 25 teenagers now plans to stay at the First Baptist Church of Nashville, Tenn., and work with Habitat for Humanity and other charities.

The Nashville church is part of the Southern Baptist Convention, but its pastor says he's happy to offer the teens Biblical hospitality.

AUSTIN CHURCH-BAR Come to church in a bar and bring your dog

AUSTIN, Texas
A nondenominational church in Austin, Texas, is conducting Sunday services in a bar and allowing dogs to attend with their owners.

The City Community Church meets Sunday mornings at La Zona Rosa, a music venue and bar.

Organizers tell the Austin American-Statesman that it takes an hour and a-half to make the switch from bar to church by cleaning up beer bottles and installing baby gates.

Church members say meeting in a bar and allowing dogs helps them serve the community and make people feel comfortable.

The church's pastor says most dogs are well-behaved, although a German shepherd recently tried to eat one of the smaller dogs.

LIGHTNING-CHURCH Lightning destroys steeple of historic church

MEDWAY, Mass.
Lightning has struck a historic Massachusetts church, damaging its roof and destroying its steeple.

The Medway Community Church was hit by a lightning bolt Thursday morning as fierce thunderstorms rolled through the area. Flames engulfed the steeple and charred the roof. No injuries have been reported.

Firefighters say they saved the rest of the church, which dates to 1814.

Associate pastor Carl Schultz promises that Sunday worship services will be held inside the church or on its front lawn.

The church also offers Sunday school and choir programs for children and adults.

VATICAN-MICHELANGELO Possible Michelangelo self-portrait revealed

VATICAN CITY
The restoration of Michelangelo's frescoes in the Vatican's Pauline Chapel may have produced a special prize: a previously unknown self-portrait of the artist.

The Vatican's chief restorer says the face of a man on horseback in the artist's "The Crucifixion of St. Peter" could well be Michelangelo's, though nobody will ever know "with absolute certainty."

The frescoes were painted between 1542 and 1549, when Michelangelo was 75. They were his last works.

The Vatican announced earlier this week that the five-year restoration had been completed at a cost of $4.5 million. The chapel is used by the pope and is not open to the general public.

Pope Benedict will inaugurate the restored chapel with a prayer service Saturday.

INMATERELIGION Inmate, state settle religious access issue

BATON ROUGE, La.
The state of Louisiana and the American Civil Liberties Union have filed an agreement in federal court that will allow a convicted murderer to watch Catholic Masses on TV.

With the settlement, the ACLU and the Louisiana Attorney General's Office also have asked the court to dismiss Donald Lee Leger's lawsuit against the state.

Leger, who's sentenced to die for a 2001 murder, claimed in his lawsuit that prison officials unfairly limited Sunday television services on death row to Baptist or Pentecostal services.

Leger complained that made him unable to participate in Catholic Mass.

Neither side admitted fault in the settlement.